This is the page under the rest of the site. It names the three things we do not do, and what we do instead.
Steven Palmieri is not a CPA firm. Texas law reserves a short list of signed reports for licensed CPA firms, and those reports are how public companies and large deals talk about books. They are not how most owners under ten million run a company. We prepare clean tax-basis books without a report, put a controller on the month, and show you the picture. That is the work you actually live on.
Here is what those reserved words mean in plain terms.
An audit is a signed report in which a licensed CPA firm looks at the books and says they can be trusted under the rules used for that report. Public companies that file with the SEC must have this kind of work. A private company does not, unless a lender, an investor, or a buyer writes it into a contract.
A review is a lighter signed report. It gives less comfort than an audit, but it is still a report, and in Texas only a licensed CPA firm may issue it.
A compilation is the firm taking your numbers, putting them into a statement, and signing that they compiled it, without saying the numbers are true. The signed report is still reserved. A person without a license may prepare statements, but they may not issue that kind of report.
GAAP reports are books kept in the language public companies use. Federal securities law makes SEC filers use it. There is no federal rule that a private company must keep GAAP books. Bankers, buyers, and investors sometimes ask for them, and that is a contract habit, not a tax-code duty.
Almost no owner under our line needs those three things. You still sign the loan yourself. An SBA lender asks for your personal financial statement, your tax returns, and company books that match those returns. That file is not an audit, and it is not a GAAP package.
What we do instead is the monthly maintenance of your finances, with AI assisting us with the grind. A controller checks the numbers, sends payroll and sales tax out on time, and closes the month with figures you can trust. On that close we do the CFO work, which is cash you can see, a plan for the year, tax planning so you keep more of what you earn, a funding file that gets a yes, and a picture of the flow from your credit and your books to your cash and your capital, on one page and on your phone.
When a loan covenant, an investor, or a sale actually requires a signed report, we will tell you. Then you hire a CPA firm for that attest work, and we keep the monthly books they will start from. That is the honest split.
No audits. No GAAP. Just clean numbers and a clear picture.
Sources
All accessed 2026-09-14.
1. AICPA, "What is a private company audit." aicpa-cima.com
2. 15 U.S.C. § 78m; 17 CFR § 210.4-01(a)(1). law.cornell.edu
3. Tex. Occ. Code §§ 901.002(a)(1), 901.456, 901.460. statutes.capitol.texas.gov
4. Tex. Occ. Code § 901.456(b)-(e) (a non-license holder may prepare statements without a report). texas.public.law
5. AICPA, special purpose frameworks, including tax basis. aicpa-cima.com
6. SBA Form 413, Personal Financial Statement. sba.gov
7. SOP 50 10 8.1 Appendix 20 (owner financial statement for owners of 20% or more). sba.gov